this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
35 points (94.9% liked)

Selfhosted

60024 readers
924 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

  1. Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.

  2. No spam.

  3. Posts here are to be centered around self-hosting. Please ensure it is clear in your post how it relates to self-hosting.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or git here. Just post the link for folks to click.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title.

  6. No trolling.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I'm running a Ubuntu server on my old laptop with an external HDD connected to it. The external HDD is powered independently from the laptop, as it is plugged into the wall.

During a power outage, my laptop remains operational due to its battery, but the HDD shuts down. When power is restored, my laptop does not automatically remount the HDD, and I have to reboot the system manually to access it.

Does anyone know how I can resolve this issue?

Edit: Not sure if this added context changes anything, but this is the HDD I'm using. It's a 3.5" HDD that gets its power directly from the wall.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It counts as long as barriers are on

https://archive.kernel.org/oldwiki/ext4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Ext4_Howto.html#Barriers_on_by_default

External drives expect you to ensure writes complete first. If you don't then smart software with copy-on-write and consistency checks can survive power loss (at the cost of losing recent changes). Other software which assumes a reliable drive can get wrecked.

Lots of file systems can not handle random power losses because they don't force continous integrity of the disk file system, that's why FAT formatted drives so often get corrupted